Showcase: Ork Dreadnought (Deff Dread)

If you’ve been following project 2nd edition then you’ll know I was never a fan of the cardboard ruins and cardboard Ork Dreadnought. I made some proxy ruins out of the plastic Cities of Death ruins and sourced a BNIB Ork Dreadnought from eBay (£30 – reasonable I thought). Having completed the Dreadnought, that now concludes this project. Read on for more pictures.

This project was all about respecting the classic but bringing it up to date. The original didn’t have a base (60mm bases hadn’t been invented yet) and it came with a paper banner which I didn’t want to use. Instead I sculpted a greenstuff banner and freehanded the classic iconography. 

I also painted the checks across the chest by freehand. it almost broke my heart when I had to weather over the top of the time consuming checks. But it looks better for it in my opinion. 

For the weathering I sponged on some metal chips and painted on larger chips or scraps as well.  I tried to keep it subtle, I didn’t want it taking over the look of the piece. I didn’t want the first thing you noticed to be the weathering. I also used a rust pigment on some of the black areas and metal areas. Once again I didn’t cover the model in this stuff, just kept it localised to areas it would naturally collect. 

I used more weathering powder on the feet, this time I used a sand coloured one to represent it getting all dusty. 

Conclusion: This classic model is a bit on the small size to be classified as a proper Deff Dredd. It’s more akin to a Killer Kan in stature, but it has too many arms to be a Killer Kan. If I played Orks, I would use it as a Deff Dread I guess. I think this contemporary paint scheme has breathed fresh life into a classic model. It was also fun to do a bit of weathering as well. I’ve a long way to go before I’m as good as ThirdEyeNuke though.